The AARWBA Jerry Titus Award candidates

Each year the professional members of the
American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) vote by
closed ballot to select the year's Auto Racing All-American Team. The
highest vote-getter - among all categories - receives the...

Each year the professional members of the
American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) vote by
closed ballot to select the year's Auto Racing All-American Team. The
highest vote-getter - among all categories - receives the Jerry Titus
Award, named for the journalist-racer who embodied the spirit of
motorsports coverage even as he took part in competition.

Scott Dixon celebrates championship.

Photo by Michael Kim.

Coming at the end of each race sanction body's season, it would be easy for
members to merely check off series winners in each category but this year
AARWBA voters went for the jugular and named drivers noted for their
competitive juices as well as their results. As always, the First Team
receives the most number of votes, followed by a Second Team and then by
drivers who rate Honorable Mention by earning 5% of the total vote.

Two drivers receiving First Team honors in the Open Wheel category got
there by virtue of championship in their disciplines but theirs was a tie
with a driver who garnered sufficient votes to make it a three-way tie.
Scott Dixon took the title in his first year as an Indy Racing League
IndyCar Series driver by recording three wins in 16 races, five pole
positions, nine top 5 finishes, 11 top-10s and leading 748 laps in Team
Target's #9 Panoz G Force/Toyota/Firestone, for Chip Ganassi's IndyCar
squad. The Kiwi was as cool and collected as a wizened veteran.

Paul Tracy notched his first championship in CART's Bridgestone Presents
the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford - in this, his 13th season of
series competition. Canadian Tracy pummeled his competitors with seven
victories in 18 contests, six pole positions, 10 podiums and a series of
sound bites that held interest in the Champ Car series to a premium. The
Thrill from West Hill finished out of the points only four times while
driving the #3 Team Player's Lola/Ford-Cosworth/Bridgestone car.

This duo of champions were out-pointed by Brazilian Gil de Ferran, driving
his final season of IRL IndyCar Series competition for Marlboro Team Penske
in a #6 Dallara/Toyota. There was an aberration in de Ferran's season,
though, as he ran a Panoz G Force/Toyota at the 87th running of the
Indianapolis 500 Mile Race and managed to return from a one-race hiatus
following an accident in the second event of the year to win at Indy.
Lying fifth in the title fight going into the final round at Texas Motor
Speedway, de Ferran nearly did the impossible by winning MBNA pole, the
Chevy 500 and leading the most laps to gain second place in the final
standings.

Matt Kenseth poses with the Winston Cup Series Trophy.

Photo by Autostock.

The final NASCAR Winston Cup season championship went to Roush Racing's Matt
Kenseth, who won only one race in his #17 DeWalt Ford but managed to keep
hold of the top spot through his exemplary consistency, giving Jack Roush
his first Cup championship. Kenseth is joined on the AARWBA Stock Car First
Team by Ryan Newman, driver of the #12 Alltel Dodge from the Penske South
stables who led all comers by winning eight races in the 36-event marathon
and garnered the most votes in his category.

In Road Racing, veterans prevailed with Trans-Am champ Scott Pruett gaining
top vote status after an absence of nine seasons. Pruett's title-winning
drive for Paul Gentilozzi's Rocketsports Jaguar team garnered the sometime
CART commentator a seventh visit to the All-American First Team. Canadian
Ron Fellows joins Pruett on the First Team as the American Le Mans Series
GTS co-titleholder (with Johnny O'Connell) for Pratt-Miller's Chevrolet
Corvette team, Fellows' second straight year on the First Team. Fellows
also drove two very competitive races for Dale Earnhardt Inc. at both
NASCAR road race venues, Sears Point Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen.

While it might never happen in a quarter-mile drag race, the top AARWBA
vote-getters in the Drag Racing category tied in the number of votes
collected: they are the NHRA's Larry Dixon, Top Fuel titlist for Don
Prudhomme and Tony Pedregon, who knocked out his own boss in NHRA Funny Car
by beating John Force. This is Dixon's second straight championship and
First Team honor; Pedregon ended Force's 10-year stay atop NHRA's
championship ladder and in AARWBA's First Team voting.

J.J. Yeley seeks to stretch his record.

Photo by Kenneth Plotkin.

Voters in the Short Track category previously had the option of voting for
open- and closed-wheel competitors. For 2003 that changed as voting was in
open-wheel only, dominated by the second-ever USAC Triple Crown champion
J.J. Yeley and perennial World of Outlaws "King" Steve Kinser. Yeley won
the USAC Silver Crown, Sprint and Midget series and also bagged an
unprecedented 24 wins on the year to gain only his second All-American nod.
Kinser snared his 18th WoO crown and thereby extended his own lasso on All-
American honors: it's the King's16th time on the First Team and 21st honor
overall.

This year AARWBA initiated a Touring Series category and first-time winners
on the First Team are Brian Vickers, who claimed the NASCAR Busch Series
title in the final race of the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Frank
Kimmel, who earned his fifth ARCA championship in 2003. This is Kimmel's
first time on the First Team after having to battle unsuccessfully against
Kinser in the Short Track category.

Feeder series champions took honors in the At-Large categories for 2003 All-
American Team honors, both with seven-victory seasons in a 12-race
campaign, using the same car number. Briton Mark Taylor drove the #4
Fulmar/Panther Dallara/Infiniti to seven wins as a rookie in the
Menards/IRL Infiniti Pro Series. A.J. Allmendinger moved up as champion of
last year's CART Barber/Dodge Pro Series to drive the #4 RuSPORT
Swift/Toyota to seven wins in CART's Toyota/Atlantic championship. This is
the first All-American Team honor for both of these young lions, who are
moving up the ladder again in 2004.

This year's Jerry Titus Award Winner will come from these 15 nominees, all
of whom had terrific seasons racing in American-based competition. The top
vote getter - and all of the winners -- will be feted at the 34th annual
AARWBA banquet, which is being held this year at the Sheraton Suites in
Pomona, CA, next door to the NHRA Museum. First Team honorees receive the
distinctive Horsepower Award trophy created by fine artist Hector
Cademartori.